Though I Do Believe in You
by ShinyFirefly
Summary: A traumatized Sarah finds her way back "home". Angst-o-rama. Short fic and my first ever completed and posted fic. So sue me, I'm no good at summeries.


THOUGH I DO BELIEVE IN YOU   
  
"It's not fair! It's...not...FAIR!" Sarah screamed into her pillow, her dry eyes stinging and begging for the wet relief that tears would bring.  
  
"Sarah?" It was Hoggle coming for another one of his visits. Concerned, he climbed out of the mirror and approached the trembling girl. "Sarah?" he inquired again, laying a hand on her back. He noticed that her clothes were damp with sweat.  
  
She turned from her pillow long enough to utter three words: "Go away, Hoggle."  
  
"Okay, fine," he replied crossing his arms over his chest and trying to mask his hurt with anger. He disappeared as quickly and quietly as he had come.  
  
Sarah laid silently for a moment before realizing that she would like Hoggle there after all.   
"Hoggle..." she called feebly, her voice scratchy from screaming. "Hoggle," she tried again. It was no use. She wondered if he'd ever come back at all. The little goblin was notorious for holding grudges.  
  
She sighed.  
  
Sarah had been in bed for nearly two days. Only two days, she thought miserably. If two days without them were this bad, she vowed to kill herself to spare a lifetime of agony.  
  
It had been three months since her adventures in the Labyrinth. Three months since she discovered just how important her baby brother was to her. She had matured a great deal in the days that had followed. Baby-sitting every chance she got, joining the Drama Club at school and making friends which were niether of the dog or goblin kind-it seemed she had changed for the better. Life wasn't always fair, but Sarah had learned to deal with it.  
  
Then, two days ago (Only two...), she had come home from school to find her step-mother crying on the couch.   
  
"What's wrong?" she'd asked.  
  
It was nearly 6 o'clock. She'd stayed after school late because of a Drama Club meeting. It was quiet in the house for being so late in the day. Her stomach dropped.  
  
"Where's dad? And Toby?"  
  
Her step-mother said nothing but moaned at the mention of their names. Sarah's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, God," she whispered. "What happened?"  
  
The sobbing woman still said not a word. Sarah rushed over to her and shook her violently. "What happened to them?! Where are they?!"  
  
She ran upstairs looking in every room, under every bed, in every closet for some sign, anything at all, that they were okay. She found nothing.  
  
"Sarah, they're dead." Sarah came back down and sat at the foot of the couch. Suddenly she didn't think her legs would hold. "They died in a car accident...this morning." "This morning?! Why didn't you tell me? WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL?!" Sarah's voice was rising to a fevered pitch. Her step-mother looked up at her coldly. "Don't take that tone of voice with me young lady. I told you now didn't I?"  
  
The anger and fear and anguish reached a boiling point and Sarah struck the woman, hard across the face with a venom she ddn's know she had in her. It got ugly after that. I won't go into details because I want to keep this long story short, but whatever the relationship that the two had once shared was deteriorated in an instant and they were both very sore the next day.  
  
Day number three came and went with no Hoggle and no step-mother. Sarah managed to stagger to the bathroom once for a drink of water. Lack of food had made her delerious and she thought she saw Jareth standing over her bed with an out-stretched hand, ready to take her away. She reached out to him, both appalled and fasinated. She felt her eyes sting again when she grabbed nothing but air.  
  
Ludo came to visit her in the early morning hours of her fourth in day bed. "Hello Sarah," he said in his slow, growling voice. She tried to talk but no sound came out. She touched his long fur to make sure he was really there. "Sarah sad," he said knowingly. She nodded. "Sarah needs to say goodbye."  
  
And with those words he picked her up and carried her downstairs. Her step-mother wasn't there. Maybe she'd gone back to work or drove to the store to get some groceries. Maybe she'd been gone for days without Sarah ever noticing. Sarah found that she didn't care much anyway.  
  
When she finally managed to speak she did so bitterly. "Three months after the Labyrinth and he dies. And I think to myself: 'Why did I go through so much to save him? He would still be alive if we'd stayed in the Labyrinth, I bet. Maybe dad would too. He'd be a goblin, but at least he's be a-a-liiiive." Her last word came out a wail. "Not Sarah's fault," Ludo assured her. She looked up at him, grateful but not entirely convinced.  
  
They were outside by then, walking down Main Street. Passer-bys never gave them a second glance. Perhaps they never saw them at all. He carried her for miles that way, them both looking like some bizarre version of "Beauty and the Beast." Sarah knew where they were going and began to suck her fingers anxiously as she did when she was very small.  
  
Holdman's Cemetary.  
  
Ludo gently sat her down in front of two newly placed headstones. She touched both of them in turn, gingerly, using only the tips of her fingers as though they might crumble.  
  
"It's time to say goodbye to them, Sarah," said a fimiliar voice from behind her. She whirled around to see Hoggle. Sir Didymus was beside him, for once without his trusty canine. He took off his hat in respect for the dead. "You're still alive, Sarah," said he. "Always remember, they may be dead, but you're still alive. Don't let yourself die with them."  
  
"But I'm alone!" she cried. "I'm all alone without them!" Her eyes no longer stung but burned as if on fire. She finally began to cry.  
  
"You're not alone," said Hoggle. "As long as you believe in us and in the Labyrinth you'll never be alone." "The Labyrinth," she repeated clutching the worn book that had started it all to her chest like a talisman. She didn't remember bringing it.  
  
Her friends, her true friends, sat by her as she finally mourned for her family. She cried and screamed and sobbed until she couldn't anymore. No one else in the cemetary seemed to notice.   
  
When she was too weak to go on she closed her eyes and laid down on the soft earth.  
  
She woke up in her room. Jareth was there, standing over her bed with an outstratched hand. She reached for them and their fingers entwined. "I think someone is ready to come back to my Labyrinth," he said, a bit smugly. But there was sympathy in his eyes.  
  
His grip tightened on her hand and she felt stronger and more alive than ever as he helped her out of bed. Sheer power seemed to flow from his hand into her. He looked at her with a strange expression-possibly love, possibly obsession but most likely a combination of the two, and lead her to where her future began and everyone was waiting.  
  
  
  
  



End file.
